AFRO-CUBAN ARTS FESTIVAL Havana cultural high

A jazz musician from Cleveland who's interested in Cuban music is writing a composition specially for the local festival.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Organizers of the second Afro-Cuban Arts Festival want people to explore their musical, artistic and spiritual connections with the Cuban community this weekend at Youngstown State University.
Despite Cuba's economic hardships and the ongoing trade embargo by the United States, Cubans find ways to celebrate art, says festival director Dr. Ivania del Pozo.
"Where there are struggles, art always rises to the occasion," she said.
Cuba is "a place where materialism matters much less than here."
Artist: Students in del Pozo's business Spanish class made a video that ties the festival's elements together. That video features artist Joel R. Besmar Nieves, 34, whom they filmed last year at his modest home in Camaguey, Cuba. An exhibit of Besmar's work, titled "Ascensus, Tree Spirit," will be on display for nearly two weeks in YSU's McDonough Museum of Art.
The video's background music is by Cliff Habian, a jazz musician and composer from Cleveland who will perform Saturday night in Kilcawley Center. Habian, 45, has recorded seven CDs, the latest of which is titled "Havana Sunset."
Habian is writing a composition for this event, said del Pozo, of YSU's foreign languages and literatures faculty.
Besmar has seen the video and likes Habian's music for its reflection of Cuban culture, del Pozo said.
Besmar is "so shy and self-effacing," said del Pozo, who was born in Cuba but left as a young girl. She has visited the country several times and met Besmar nearly three years ago. She was on sabbatical from YSU last year to work on a book about poets and writers in Camaguey. Besmar provided artwork for the cover of her book, which is being published in Cuba.
Besmar has illustrated other books, designed theater sets and restored artwork in Catholic churches. The church is very important to Cuban writers and artists, del Pozo said. Other denominations that have thrived in Cuba are Baptist and Protestant churches, especially Pentecostal, she noted.
Besmar's spiritually based paintings -- mostly acrylic on canvas-like material -- are presented banner-style.
Leslie Brothers, director of YSU's McDonough Museum of Art, had only color photocopies of Besmar's work to examine at first, but she was intrigued. "I liked that he used a kind of universal symbolic vocabulary. I thought people coming to see the paintings would immediately connect to it," she said.
Besmar's symbolism includes tree roots that "show man's connection to nature," Brothers said; an "all-seeing eye" that's present in many of his works; an inner ear shape; and references to angels, saints and figures from Greek and Roman mythology.
Exhibit: Cuban artists have had limited exposure on the international art scene, Brothers said. Two important Cuban writers served as curators of an exhibit in 1990 and 1991 -- the biggest such show to tour the United States. It was displayed at Krannert Art Museum at University of Illinois- Champaign, where Brothers previously worked. The show was "revealing in many ways," she said, citing how the quality and content of the works reflected the difficulties faced by Cuban artists.
The McDonough was also host to a "Painters from Santiago" exhibit that was on display when Brothers arrived here six months ago.
Brothers hopes Besmar's exhibit here will put the museum in touch with other Cuban artists.
Likewise, Habian hopes to make connections with Cuban musicians. He wants to perform someday at the Havana Jazz Festival, del Pozo said.
A reception in Besmar's honor will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday in the museum. Besmar hopes to visit YSU for a week but awaits his U.S. visa, del Pozo said.
Representatives from Wexner Center for the Arts are planning to see Besmar's exhibit, she added.
Special guest during the festival will be Florentino Batista, vice consul and third secretary in the Cuban Interests Section, Washington, D.C. Two attach & eacute;s from the politician's office were here last year.
The festival is a labor of love for del Pozo, who with help of others at YSU, has stretched every dollar of university funding and private donations this year.
"I think you have to truly believe in what you're doing," she said.